An unlikely intersection of Soviet cinema influences, North Korea and American porn
So I was scrolling through warren_ellis' latest newsletter, and, as it's often the case, I came across something that caught me eye. Well, several things. But this bit intrigued me more than others.
My friend Stoya is in this new film EDERLEZI RISING, that I'm actually finally getting to sit down and watch a screener of right now, which has reminded me that there's a trailer. Warning for nipples and bits. Nice sf imagery in this trailer, some great compositions.
Stoya, for those who don't know, is a Serbian-American director, writer and porn star (and, in a bit I didn't realize until I looked into it, her nom de pornographie derives from her real surname, "Stoyadinovich." It may be my Slavic bias talking, but I like the creative simplicity of it)
Anyway, I went to check it out because, in my experience, whatever Ellis linked to is usually at least worth considering.
To be honest,the trailer he linked to struck me as a bit on the generic Robot Rises Up and Strikes Back at Human. But the first trailer suggested something a bit more intriguing. (As Ellis said, it's a bit NSFW because naked breasts and some suggestive scenes, but nothing too terribly graphic)
Ederlezi Rising / Official Trailer 1 from MIR MEDIA GROUP on Vimeo.
I was intrigued enough to try to find out more, so I looked up "Ederlezi Rising." Turned out that it was a brainchild of Serbian producer Zoran Neskovic. It was funded through IndieGoGo, filmed in Serbia and features cast and crew from Serbia and other ex-Yugoslavian countries.
Reading through the synopsis on its IMDB page, one part caught my attention (emphasis mine)
Ederlezi Rising is an exciting science fiction romance set in near future about the pioneering space mission to Alpha Centauri undertaken by the multinational Ederlezi Corporation. Ederlezi recruits MIlutin a Slav cosmonaut trained in the newly reformed futuristic Soviet Union and accompanies him with Nimani, a female android programmed to fulfill whatever he desires.
Before I could roll my eyes at the whole "reformed Soviet Union" thing too hard, I came across a Russian-language article that said that it was actually a North Korean mission designed to spread Juche, the DPRK-style Communism.
The film's official website is talking about both exporting Juche and drawing influence from Soviet/Eastern Bloc cinema so, as my people would say, devil only knows what they're trying to go for. Well, aside from the fact that they're homaging Tarkovsky's adaptation of Solaris. They're fairly upfront about that.
Based on both the two trailers and the official cite... It has some interesting visuals, Tarkovsky homage or no Tarkovsky homage, and both of the leads seem at least decent. But I'm not convinced the plot isn't going to be the kind of bag of cliches we've seen plenty of times before. A lot of it will come down to execution, and, honestly, I'm not too optimistic.
It's not something I would actively seek out, but hey, if it ever screens in Chicago - probably at Siskel Center, or Landmark Century Cinemas - I'll see if there's room in my schedule to check it out.
My friend Stoya is in this new film EDERLEZI RISING, that I'm actually finally getting to sit down and watch a screener of right now, which has reminded me that there's a trailer. Warning for nipples and bits. Nice sf imagery in this trailer, some great compositions.
Stoya, for those who don't know, is a Serbian-American director, writer and porn star (and, in a bit I didn't realize until I looked into it, her nom de pornographie derives from her real surname, "Stoyadinovich." It may be my Slavic bias talking, but I like the creative simplicity of it)
Anyway, I went to check it out because, in my experience, whatever Ellis linked to is usually at least worth considering.
To be honest,the trailer he linked to struck me as a bit on the generic Robot Rises Up and Strikes Back at Human. But the first trailer suggested something a bit more intriguing. (As Ellis said, it's a bit NSFW because naked breasts and some suggestive scenes, but nothing too terribly graphic)
You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com
Ederlezi Rising / Official Trailer 1 from MIR MEDIA GROUP on Vimeo.
I was intrigued enough to try to find out more, so I looked up "Ederlezi Rising." Turned out that it was a brainchild of Serbian producer Zoran Neskovic. It was funded through IndieGoGo, filmed in Serbia and features cast and crew from Serbia and other ex-Yugoslavian countries.
Reading through the synopsis on its IMDB page, one part caught my attention (emphasis mine)
Ederlezi Rising is an exciting science fiction romance set in near future about the pioneering space mission to Alpha Centauri undertaken by the multinational Ederlezi Corporation. Ederlezi recruits MIlutin a Slav cosmonaut trained in the newly reformed futuristic Soviet Union and accompanies him with Nimani, a female android programmed to fulfill whatever he desires.
Before I could roll my eyes at the whole "reformed Soviet Union" thing too hard, I came across a Russian-language article that said that it was actually a North Korean mission designed to spread Juche, the DPRK-style Communism.
The film's official website is talking about both exporting Juche and drawing influence from Soviet/Eastern Bloc cinema so, as my people would say, devil only knows what they're trying to go for. Well, aside from the fact that they're homaging Tarkovsky's adaptation of Solaris. They're fairly upfront about that.
Based on both the two trailers and the official cite... It has some interesting visuals, Tarkovsky homage or no Tarkovsky homage, and both of the leads seem at least decent. But I'm not convinced the plot isn't going to be the kind of bag of cliches we've seen plenty of times before. A lot of it will come down to execution, and, honestly, I'm not too optimistic.
It's not something I would actively seek out, but hey, if it ever screens in Chicago - probably at Siskel Center, or Landmark Century Cinemas - I'll see if there's room in my schedule to check it out.